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Edwin Eugene Aldrin Junior was born on 20 January 1930 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. In 1946, after graduating from high school, he turned down a scholarship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to join the United States Military Academy. Aldrin’s nickname came from his sister mispronouncing brother as buzzer; Aldrin legally changed his name to Buzz in 1988. He graduated from West Point, New York, with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1951, and later a doctorate in astronautics in 1963.
His academic credentials were something that would earn him some light-hearted jest from his fellow astronauts when he joined NASA. He received pilot training in the US Air Force in 1951 and subsequently flew 66 combat missions in the Korean War. In October 1963, after his initial application was rejected, he was selected by NASA among the third group of astronauts for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.